Let them eat hemp

Food regulation in Australia can be baffling sometimes. It’s so easy to walk into a supermarket and fill your trolley with foods that can potentially undermine your health like litres of soft drink and cheap doughnuts. Yet if you want to buy hemp seed, a source of vitamins and minerals and a rich source of protein and healthy omega-3 fat, it’s still officially banned for use as a food.

However, as the man behind the counter in a health food store selling $12 packets of hemp seed explained to me recently, he was legally able to sell me the product providing I only used it for non food purposes – as a body scrub perhaps- and didn’t accidentally sprinkle some on my muesli.

" If hemp is so good for us, why isn’t it on the supermarket shelf along with other seeds like chia, pepitas, flax and sunflower seed?"

Yet hemp seed’s nutrition credentials are excellent, says Dr Trent Watson, an accredited practising dietitian and spokesman for the Dietitans Association of Australia which has been involved in trying to have both hemp seed and hemp seed oil approved for sale as a food in Australia - just as they are in the US, Canada and Europe.

“It’s very high in plant protein – just 30g of hemp seed, or about one tablespoon, provides around 11g of protein,” he says.

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By comparison, an egg has about 6g of protein and 30g of cheese has 8g of protein.

“Hemp seed is also an easy way of getting more omega 3 fat into the diet – this fat helps reduce ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol and may help protect against heart disease, “Watson says.

But if hemp is so good for us, why isn’t it on the supermarket shelf along with other seeds like chia, pepitas, flax and sunflower seed?

The story so far is a tale of guilt by association. Although hemp belongs to the same family as pot – Cannabis sativa – it contains no or very low levels of THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the active ingredient with psychoactive effects, according to Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ), the government agency that regulates the ingredients in foods.

In other words, eating hemp seed won’t get you stoned.

Despite this, when FSANZ approved an application for hemp foods to be used as food in 2002 this decision was rejected by Australian ministers responsible for food regulation. The concern was that making hemp foods available might send a confused message to consumers about the acceptability and safety of illicit cannabis. In 2012 FSANZ again approved hemp seed for use as a food – only to hit another road block when ministers asked for a review of the approval. This review will now go to ministers in late June at which point it might be thumbs up for hemp, but there’s no guarantee.

If hemp seed does get the green light, it’s likely to be hyped as the next super food with a few inflated claims like it reduces cravings, improves digestion and lowers blood pressure, predicts Trent Watson.

“Although there‘s evidence of its nutritional value the claims that are made for hemp seed are a bit of a stretch and there’s no clinical research to back them up,” says Trent Watson. “It’s not a miracle food - just one of many other nutritious foods that are good to include. “

If we are finally allowed to legally consume hemp, how would we eat it? Just as you would any other seed – they’re a good way to add a boost of extra nutrients, protein and fibre to muesli, porridge, muffins and dishes based on bulgur, quinoa or rice. Or as The Washington Post’s health pagesreported recently, they also make a moreish no-bake brownie combined with cacao powder, dates, walnuts and vanilla. But while we wait for a decision from Canberra, we’d better substitute chia seed instead.

25 comments so far

Paula has hit the nail on the head. While there are hypocritical regulations that allow "junk" foods such as soft drink to be hawked to the masses so they can get ill and healthy sources of protein and omega 3s such as hemp are banned, I will quite happily eat hemp seed till the cows come home. For god sake, even the US home of the "failed war on drugs" can get past the fact that hemp is not an illegal drug. Do regulators and politicians think people are so stupid as to confuse two different things? Just goes to show how corrupt our society is that harmful food like I alluded to and things like cigarettes are legal to buy while amazing plant foods like this are not.

Commenter

Ben Garden

Location

Campbell

Date and time

April 14, 2014, 7:58AM

I am really looking forward to these countries evolving and progressing to more modern mentalities. It's great how these countries move ahead with these things, puts pressure on ours to become a bit more in line with how things just should be. Once our leader moves on the new leader will see tax benefits on medical marijuana just like America and UK. Not just the tax benefits and income stream but always for the purpose of medical reasons.

Commenter

The Other Guy1

Date and time

April 14, 2014, 11:08AM

Hemp is Cannabis sativa, but a different subspecies to the high THC subspecies and different again to the related Cannabis indica (another 'marijuana' strain).Another cousin to Cannabis sativa is the hop plant, the flowers of which are added to beer to provide bitterness, flavour and aroma. Hop flowers are also antimicrobial, making low strength beer a healthy drink than water for hundreds of years. Just like hemp now, hops were banned for a time in medieval Europe.

Commenter

Jon G

Location

Sydney

Date and time

April 14, 2014, 8:56AM

The way things are going in Australia at the moment,we may well be living in medieval times soon :/

Commenter

It's A Scam

Location

NSW North Coast

Date and time

April 14, 2014, 9:30AM

@ It's A Scam

Atleast we will have Knights & Dames!!!

Commenter

Sir Bott

Date and time

April 14, 2014, 10:35AM

Hops were only banned in England, and were only banned for use by ale brewers, not beer brewers (beer and ale being different drinks at the time). This wasn't because hops were seen as narcotics, it was merely to enforce the distinction between the English unhopped, malted cereal beverage, ale, and the hopped malted cereal beverage from the German lowlands, beer.

Commenter

ANTON

Date and time

April 14, 2014, 12:00PM

Hemp is a miracle plant, it has so many uses and is incredibly underexploited. Paper from hemp can be harvested annually, trees take decades to become viable. And there are dozens more uses, and for nutrition is it very useful. Wake up Australia!

Commenter

Borg

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

April 14, 2014, 9:18AM

That's right borg! Hemp up until fairly recently was used for a great number of things. It produces a fibre that's more durable than cotton, and doesn't involve its delicate handling, chemical wastes, and pesticide treatment. It's fibre was used all over the world to make paper; the vast majority of books and documents, maps etc. were printed on hemp paper up until about the end of the 19th Century, and, naturally it's stronger and more durable than wood-chip based paper; it doesn't degrade nearly as quickly and can be recycled more. It was used to make, ropes, sails, and clothes. It has been used medically since ancient times in many cultures.

It produces far more pulp per acre than trees, and can be harvested 2, perhaps 3 times a year. It can grow in many different climates. It burns hotter than coal and is viable as a bio-fuel.

The benefits are so utterly undeniable, and the refusal to acknowledge them so detrimental, the current attitude amounts to a kind of psychosis, which when you think about it is rather, sadly, ironic.

Commenter

thrash jazz assassin

Location

shanghai

Date and time

April 14, 2014, 1:04PM

Poppy seeds when consumed, can be detected in the urine test as opiates.

This little gem is why Human Consumption of hemp seeds will likely fail. Small traces of THC from seed may render the very lucrative 'criminal fines going into Government coffers'...impractical. ie. the roadside dope test.

This is how screwed up our country has become.

Commenter

Tempest

Date and time

April 14, 2014, 9:35AM

Quite a few of the USA states are now legalizing WEED and are bring in huge amouts of tax revenue, and i bet ya there's no violence involved with the people using it.